Say, sixty gallons, glass edged with silicone, a pump, some gravel colored like confetti. We fill it first with fresh water, test the Ph, get silver tip tetras and red cap orandas, lyretail guppies and gold gouramis. Buy a neon blue castle, lace java ferns and a treasure chest that can’t stay shut but bubbles open. Read books on algae but forget to find a sucker fish. Overfeed the guppies and let the tetras over-produce, eat their own young. Forget to change the filter, forget the cover, hire a friend to dump it all out, bleach it, start over.

We fill it with salt water, read the hydrometer and adjust the temperature to a balmy eighty degrees. Plant mermaid’s hair and mermaid’s fan and add a feather duster with an orange crown to keep everything clean. Find a red finger gorgonian and a fake ship wrecked on coral. Stick to the fish who sport the funniest names: bicolor dottybacks and the midas blenny, the scissortail dartfish and the sleeper banded goby. They will swim and be tickled by the plants we offer, hide in the wreck and eat the brine shrimp we drop into the water. All will be well until the goby leaps from the tank and is swallowed by the dog, the dottybacks bully the blennies to death, and the dartfish get lodged in the clear tube that pumps water, poisoning the duster.

Empty and clean the tank again. Line the bottom with woodchips and add a waterbottle and pink igloo. Buy a guinea pig. Name it Eel. Hope that this plan works better than the others. Know that at least this time, it’s dry and pellets are cheap.

So then, the old telling of stories: birds migrating across rushes, fledglings nested in forsythia.

So then, the old wringing of hands: wooden bridge missing three slats, glaciers breaking into fjords.

So many reasons for not believing, rocket fire webbing the sky in places whose names the news cannot pronounce. So our story is the best story and look, there are tracers scribing our names in the dark.

We hope you enjoyed these love poems as we begin February here at EIL, looking for love! Click on each poet’s name above to find his or her solo poetry feature, and look for more valentines next week at Escape Into Life, too! Find more art by Adrian Waggoner and more love poems by clicking the links below.

A Tribute To The Founder

Chris' dream was to feature and support artists all over the world. So in place of donations, please visit the EIL Art Store and shop items by our featured artists. Your support is extremely appreciated.